Jensen Artists: Selected 2025 Albums for Year-End Roundup Consideration
Selected 2025 Albums for Year-End Roundup Consideration
Lei Liang
Dui (Islandia Records)
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Mystery Sonata
Aequora (Sono Luminus)
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Anna Thorvaldsdottir
UBIQUE (Sono Luminus)
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Leandra Ramm
Watching glass, I hear you (Ablaze Records)
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Matthew Aubin & the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra
Fernande Decruck / Concertante Works, Vol. 2 (Claves Records)
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Anton Mejias & Philip Lasser
The Art of Memory (Deutsche Grammophon)
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Ariel Quartet
Ludwig van Beethoven: Complete String Quartets Vol. 1 (Orchid Records)
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Sarah Cahill and Regina Myers
UP by Riley Nicholson
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Benjamin Appl
For Dieter: The Past and The Future (Outhere Music)
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Simone Dinnerstein
Complicité (Supertrain Records)
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Maya Beiser
Salt (Islandia Music Records)
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Tamar Sagiv
Shades of Mourning (Sono Luminus)
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Telegraph Quartet
Edge of the Storm (Azica Records)
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Ember
Birds of Paradise (Azica Records)
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Arlene Sierra
Birds and Insects Vol. 4 (Bridge Records)
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Christopher Stark
Fire Ecologies (New Focus Recordings)
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Ensemble Galilei
There I Long to Be (Sono Luminus)
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Clarice Jensen
In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness (FatCat / 130701)
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Ariel Quartet
Ludwig van Beethoven: Complete String Quartets Vol. 2 (Orchid Records)
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Lei Liang – Dui | February 14, 2025 (Islandia Records)
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The Best New Albums Out February 14, 2025 – NPR Music, All Songs Considered
“Chinese-American composer Lei Liang’s eclectic collection of ten thematic tracks could pass as a soundtrack to an artistic, surrealist film or an intense, psychological drama.” – John Tamillo, The Arts Fuse
“[Dui] is intensely absorbing in the way it invites prolonged immersion and engagement. It is, simply put, a recording of fulsome rewards, and listeners will come away from it feeling well-compensated for their investments of time and attention.” – Ron Schepper, Textura
Dui, is a portrait album of the music of Chinese-American composer Lei Liang. The new record features performances by Maya Beiser, cello; Wu Man, pipa; Steven Schick, percussion; Cho-Liang Lin, violin; Zhe Lin, percussion; Mark Dresser, contrabass; and loadbang (Andy Kozar, trumpet; William Lang, trombone; Carlos Cordeiro, bass clarinet; and Jeffrey Gavett, baritone). The album’s title Dui, 對, means “to face.” Dui stages instruments and performance as elements of surprise from distant worlds.
Lei Liang is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Aaron Copland Award, a Koussevitzky Foundation Commission, a Creative Capital Award, and the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He writes about the music on this album, “Composing offers me a chance to explore and foster deeply personal relationships, including the relationship with my own cultural and spiritual heritage. It also presents me the opportunity to face seemingly insurmountable challenges. Who am I without my cultural heritage and without my friendships? I like to think of my music as the ultimate tribute to the past and present bonds that have shaped my life and given it meaning. All of the works on this album were written for and performed by artists who have inspired me. The challenge in composing each piece, however, is unique.”
Mystery Sonata – Aequora | February 28, 2025 (Sono Luminus)
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“Carrettin and Gajić work seamlessly as a team, and they bring expressive acuity and technical prowess” – Donald Rosenberg, Gramophone
The Best New Albums Out February 28, 2025 – NPR Music, All Songs Considered
“These composers [on Aequora] may be known to those who follow the contemporary Iceland scene, but most, with the possible exception of Anna Thorvaldsdottir, are going to be new to listeners. That is just one good reason to check the album out; another is the crystal clear sound from Sono Luminus, catching Carrettin's delicate work in his highest register.” – James Manheim, AllMusic
Until the release of Aequora on Sono Luminus, pianist Mina Gajić and violinist Zachary Carrettin have recorded under their given names, occasionally performing live under the duo’s moniker, Mystery Sonata, especially in non-classical settings presenting a diversity of repertoire and styles. Aequora is the first recording the married duo have released as Mystery Sonata, embracing the inherent mystery in presenting contemporary music and new arrangements for the first time. The album is inspired by Iceland and the cultural legacy of its music, featuring works by several prominent Icelandic composers, including Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Daníel Bjarnason, María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, and Páll Ragnar Pálsson.
Mina Gajić writes, “Zachary and I traveled to Iceland to experience the landscapes and to meet with several composers, exploring their work and observing where the connections between their interests and ours as a duo seemed congruous. María had been wanting to rework her Aequora, adding a violin to the piano and electronics, and Páll Ragnar Pálsson had been imagining adapting the harp part for piano in his work Notre Dame. Both turned out to be remarkably successful, and rewarding to study and perform. In exploring works to program alongside these, Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Reminiscence and Daníel Bjarnason’sFirst Escape worked beautifully – solos complementing the other works while providing refreshing contrast to the duo works. We asked Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir to create an entirely new work for us with the goal of providing a contemplative environment for the audience, as a shared meditation, a community-building ritual. She composed an utterly gorgeous work, Re/fractions, casting light on what is possible when the intention is, as she so eloquently stated when we first met, ‘to refrain from adding noise to an already noisy world.’”
Anna Thorvaldsdottir – UBIQUE | February 28, 2025 (Sono Luminus)
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“If you don’t know Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s music, you’re in for a real treat. If you had to create a soundtrack for geologic plate tectonics or the lifespan of dwarf stars, and galaxies, and black holes, you might go to Anna Thorvaldsdottir. She’s concerned with big blocks of sound and textures and here, this small group of instruments sounds much bigger than it is.” – Tom Huizenga, NPR Music, All Songs Considered
“There’s an elusive mixture of ritual and instinct to the writing that eschews traditional structure; and while it may not draw direct inspiration from nature in the way that much of Thorvaldsdottir’s music does, there’s no missing its raw unpredictability, with passages of lyric contemplation dissolving into harrowing dissonance.” – Peter Margasak, Bandcamp Daily
“[Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s] music has a uniquely powerful magnetism.” – Peter Burwasser, The Absolute Sound
Anna Thorvaldsdottir releases the world premiere recording of UBIQUE on Sono Lumiunus, an evening-length chamber work, which was co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, the Cheswatyr Foundation, Kurt Chauviere, and Density Arts for Claire Chase’s Density 2036 project. The world premiere was given in May 2023 at Carnegie Hall, performed by Claire Chase, flutes; Katinka Kleijn and Seth Parker Woods, cellos; and Cory Smythe, piano; with Levy Lorenzo, live sound. The same musicians recorded the music for this new album.
Anna writes of the piece, “UBIQUE is inspired by the notion of being everywhere at the same time, an enveloping omnipresence, while simultaneously focusing on details within the density of each particle, echoed in various forms of fragmentation and interruption and in the sustain of certain elements of a sound beyond their natural resonance – throughout the piece, sounds are both reduced to their smallest particles and their atmospheric presence expanded towards the Infinite. As with my music generally, the inspiration is not something I am trying to describe through the music as such – it is a way to intuitively approach and work with the core energy, structure, atmosphere and material of the piece.”
Leandra Ramm – Watching glass, I hear you (Featuring the World Premiere Recording of Centuries in the Hours by Lisa Bielawa) | February 28, 2025 (Ablaze Records)
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“Each song [in Centuries in the Hours] is given the first name of the woman whose diary notes are being used. The moods and subjects vary and the women featured age from thirteen to thirty-eight years. These are beautifully written and the vocal and piano writing is very effective.” – Geoff Pearce, Classical Music Daily
The world premiere recording of Centuries in the Hours, a song cycle by composer, producer, and vocalist Lisa Bielawa, is on Watching glass, I hear you, the new album from mezzo-soprano Leandra Ramm, released on Ablaze Records. Bielawa’s song cycle illuminates the lives of American women by setting selections from women’s diaries spanning three centuries. The album also includes song cycles by composers Cyril Deaconoff, Daron Hagen, Douglas Knehans, and David T. Little. All of the works except for Deaconoff’s songs are premiere recordings.
Of the origin of Centuries in the Hours, Bielawa says, “While at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, MA, I uncovered an entire alternative American history, woven together through the experiences of women from all socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, of all ages, from all corners of the US and its nascent territories, and from all chapters of our history. I eventually read 72 diaries, representing staggering diversity . . These women showed me an America that was completely unknown to me, invisible yet fully lived, behind the doors and in the corners, for centuries.”
Each song in Bielawa’s Centuries in the Hours reflects the experiences of a different American woman whose life circumstances rendered her historically invisible. The stories of the women represented include Emily French, a divorced and impoverished house cleaner in the 1890s; Betsey Stockton, a formerly enslaved woman en route to Hawai’i in the 1820s; Angeles Monrayo Raymundo, a Filipina teenager in the 1920s with great ambition; Sallie McNeill, a plantation owner’s daughter in Civil War-era Texas; and Sarah Wister, a Revolutionary War-era girl whose family fled Philadelphia. The project meditates on the theme of invisibility: How do we, through performance, make visible the invisible, make things vivid in unexpected ways? To that end, it brings to light written words of women who were “invisible” in their social milieu.
Matthew Aubin & The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra – Fernande Decruck / Concertante Works, Vol. 2 | March 7, 2025 (Claves Records)
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“This is not just another good recording of music with which you are already familiar, it’s an excellent recording of excellent music that you’ve never heard before but would most likely enjoy if you did – and is thus most enthusiastically recommended.” – Karl Nehring, Classical Candor
”[...] All the soloists play with flair and engagement and the Jackson Symphony acquits itself well, Aubin directing with awareness of the modest emotional parameters of Decruck’s music. The recording has been aptly judged too and the conductor’s notes are helpfully to the point." – Jonathan Woolf, Musicweb International
Claves Records releases the world premiere recordings of four works by French composer Fernande Decruck (1896-1954) on Concertante Works Volume 2, featuring the Jackson Symphony Orchestra (Michigan) alongside soloists Jeremy Crosmer, cello; Mitsuru Kubo, viola; and Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord, conducted by Matthew Aubin. The album includes the first commercial recordings of Decruck’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (1932); Sonata in C# for Alto Saxophone (or Viola) and Orchestra (1943) with viola soloist; The Bells of Vienna: Suite of Waltzes (1935); and The Trianons: Suite for Harpsichord (or Piano) and Orchestra (1946).
For the last decade, Dr. Matthew Aubin (Music Director of the Jackson Symphony Orchestra), has championed efforts to bring Decruck’s music back to orchestral performances, giving orchestras further access and insight into her brilliant work through these recordings and by editing and creating critical editions of her music, published by Éditions Billaudot. As the foremost scholar on Decruck’s music, he has earned multiple research grants to study her significant life and work, and has worked closely with her family
“The works on this album are a diverse representation of Decruck's many compositional voices,” Aubin says. “They're sure to find a place on many a future orchestral program.”
Anton Mejias & Philip Lasser – The Art of Memory | March 28, 2025 (Deutsche Grammophon)
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The Best New Albums Out March 28, 2025 – NPR Music, All Songs Considered
“[T]he rumors about Mejias are true. He keeps up a combination of high energy and deep detail in these much-recorded pieces, and his work is quite pianistic without applying pedals or much else other than articulation. One awaits both further recordings from Mejias and especially his further format experiments.” – James Manheim, AllMusic
“As for Mejias’ Bach pianism, there’s much to savor.” – Jed Distler, Gramophone (June, 2025)
On The Art of Memory – a bold, live recording from the Dresdner Musikfestspiele – Finnish-Cuban pianist Anton Mejias deftly interweaves the music of Philip Lasser and J.S. Bach for his first solo album. Mejias takes listeners on a journey that reveals both composers' music in a new light. Lasser’s Twelve Preludes: The Art of Memory was co-commissioned for Mejias by the Dresdner Musikfestspiele and Newport Classical. The album features the world premiere recording of Philip Lasser's Twelve Preludes: The Art of Memory, a companion piece to Book II of J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.
J.S. Bach has fascinated Anton Mejias, who is considered one of the most exciting talents on the international classical scene, since his childhood. He says, “In performing Bach I strive to emphasize the incredibly rich emotional side and the heart of the music, without overlooking the intellectual side and the style of the music. The most beautiful thing is that these two sides belong together and it is not about one or the other, but about the fact that both can enrich the other enormously.”
Ariel Quartet – Complete Beethoven String Quartets Vol. 1 | April 7, 2025 (Orchid Records)
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“[A]n invigorating take [by the Ariel Quartet,] on a repertory staple that restores a sense of lightness and unpredictability to works written by a composer who was just getting started in revolutionizing the string quartet genre.” – Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, The New York Times
“Yet no one [can] deny the physical and intellectual energy of the Ariel [Quartet’s] playing or their sheer technical brilliance. That counts for a lot in Beethoven.” – Richard Wigmore, Gramophone (July 2025)
The Ariel Quartet (Alexandra Kazovsky, violin; Gershon Gerchikov, violin; Jan Grüning, viola; and Amit Even-Tov, cello) – distinguished by its virtuosity, probing musical insight, and impassioned performances – will release the complete Beethoven String Quartets over two years, culminating in 2027, the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death. For the first volume of the series, the recording includes: Beethoven’s Op. 18 string quartets over 2 CDs – on CD 1, String Quartet in F major, Op.18 No.1; String Quartet in D major, Op.18 No. 3; and String Quartet in B-flat major, Op.18 No. 6; and on CD 2, String Quartet in G major, Op.18 No. 2; String Quartet in C minor, Op.18 No. 4; and String Quartet in A major, Op.18 No. 5.
Formed when the members were just teenagers studying at the Jerusalem Academy Middle School of Music and Dance in Israel, the Ariel Quartet has a long history with the quartets of Beethoven. His String Quartet in C minor, Op.18 No.4 was the very first piece that the group tackled together as thirteen year olds, and the members credit the work for hooking them on the genre, for life.
Of Beethoven’s Op. 18 set, composed between 1798 and 1800, the Ariel writes, “[W]e hear a young Beethoven proving himself on the battleground of his teachers and peers, Haydn and Mozart, while signaling a bold move toward new musical horizons. . . Zooming in and familiarizing ourselves with Haydn’s and Mozart’s quartets of the time, we quickly understand that Beethoven’s set – while adhering to the same rules and principles – is distinctly ‘Beethovenian.’ While this impression can be broken down into factors such as motive-driven development, emotional contrasts, his characteristic expanded harmonic language, structural experimentation etc., the big achievement was his ability to unify these elements into a compositional language that expresses extraordinary emotional depth.”
Sarah Cahill and Regina Myers – UP (by Riley Nicholson) | April 25, 2025 (Independent)
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“I was impressed by the quality of reproduction of the thick textures of this keyboard music.” – Stephen Smoliar, The Rehearsal Studio
Featured on One Jazz as part of Fuse, with Debra Richards (March 29, 2025)
Pianists Sarah Cahill and Regina Myers have recorded composer D. Riley Nicholson’s UP for two pianos, a work that they commissioned in 2020. Cahill and Myers gave the world premiere performance of the piece at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in September 2022, before recording UP at SFCM in 2024.
Nicholson writes of the work, “UP’s one unifying theme is simply that, ‘up.’ The piece moves ‘up’ in so many directions: literally, opening with an upward motif that gets pinged between pianos in a groovy, dizzying counterpoint; gradually with increasing frequency moving up the circle of fifths; with upbeat syncopations and tempi; constantly one upping itself with a burgeoning energy that trips over itself with virtuosic fits; and many other upward motions and themes. Loosely akin to a theme and variations, each movement is a different interpretation of the theme ‘up,’ and given the frenetic energy of every moment, tranquil interludes provide a necessary buffer between the movements, and give the performers a chance to catch their breath. Even with the addition of these palette cleansing interludes, the entirety of the work is a manic trip that both explores joyous energy and that darker underbelly of positivity when energy and motion become simply too much to be contained.”
Of their shared experience commissioning, performing, and recording UP, Cahill and Myers say,
“When we first spoke with Riley about commissioning a new work from him, we had no idea that it would turn into an epic four-movement piece, which we have grown to know and love as a great work of artistic expression. UP reflects Riley's own style at the piano, with brilliant rapid passagework and interlocking patterns, and it took us several years to find our way into his stylistic approach with all its complexity and intricacy. It's a beautifully powerful piece, and even a global pandemic couldn't stop its path of coming into the world. We are so fortunate to work with Riley, both as a marvelous composer and as an excellent producer of this new album!”
Benjamin Appl – For Dieter: The Past and The Future | May 23, 2025 (Outhere Music)
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“For Dieter is a loving and emotional tribute. And one that will have you not only exploring more of Appl’s work, but also Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s.” – Craig Byrd, Cultural Attaché
“Benjamin Appl’s tone and expressivity is gorgeous, and you couldn’t ask for better accompaniment than the playing of James Baillieu. But this album is more than that, a meticulous tribute to the great Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau that paints a portrait of the baritone’s life, from pieces he made famous, to obscure songs written by his own family members. A beautiful tribute to one of the most important artists of the 20th century.” – Weston Williams, WFMT
German baritone Benjamin Appl pays tribute to his teacher and mentor, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1925-2012), with For Dieter: The Past and The Future, released by Alpha Classics.The repertoire on this monumental release is structured to reflect the major stages of Fischer-Dieskau’s incredible life and includes compositions by his family members Albert and Klaus Fischer-Dieskau, repertoire he sang as a soldier during World War II and as an American Prisoner of War in Italy, and pieces that were composed especially for him, as well as favourite lieder by Schubert. Appl is joined on the recording by one of his frequent collaborators, pianist James Baillieu.
Appl writes of his experience working on this project: “It is thanks to curating this 100th anniversary celebratory album and related concerts that I have been able to spend countless hours over the past months and years studying an immense number of his letters, contracts, programmes, diary entries, photo albums and books. These were very personal moments for me, as they brought me closer not only to Fischer-Dieskau the artist but even more so to the man himself; they sharpened my memories of character traits I knew so well and also allowed me to observe new facets of his multi-lavered personality. This project is intended to provide a subjective representation of Fischer-Dieskau as well as to give an insight into the man behind all the great successes and accolades, and onto what moved him and what shaped him as a human being.”
Simone Dinnerstein – Complicité | May 30, 2025 (Supertrain Records)
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“[Simone Dinnerstein and Baroklyn] spend a pleasant hour gently experimenting with and rethinking a neatly chosen sequence of compositions by Bach.” – Lindsay Kemp, Gramophone
“With Dinnerstein spearheading the project, Complicité registers strongly. Not only are the performances terrific, the music impresses for being more than faithful replications of existing scores but instead arresting re-imaginings that take Bach's pieces into dynamic new realms. The pianist's talent for inspiring those around her is also clearly evident in the engaged performances by [Baroklyn] and the contributions of [Peggy] Pearson and [Jennifer Johnson] Cano.” – Ron Schepper, Textura
“I was seduced by the sound world of this album. There is a relaxed yet sincere quality to the performances that conveys the artists’ desire to make this music feel contemporary and accessible. This is music among friends with the listener feeling very welcome and wishing the evening would not end.” – Oliver Camacho, WFMT
Complicité, out now on Supertrain Records, is the fifteenth album from GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein. This is Simone's first album with the string ensemble she founded and directs, Baroklyn (a portmanteau of Baroque and Brooklyn, her home borough).
It includes Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in E Major, BWV 1053 and his chorales Herr Gott, nun schleuß den Himmel auf, BWV 617 and Der Leib war in der Erden, BWV 161 (both arranged by Dinnerstein and Baroklyn); Bach’s Cantata 170, Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust with continuo realization by Philip Lasser; and In the Air, Lasser’s recomposition of Bach’s Air on the G String. Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano and Peggy Pearson, oboe d’amore, join Simone's and Baroklyn on this deeply felt recording, which embodies Dinnerstein’s artistic vision that music should always be creative and new.
Of the album title, Simone says, “Complicité is a term that I first heard from my son, who studied the teachings of the French theatre practitioner, Jacques Lecoq. Three important ideas that Lecoq communicated to his students were le jeu (playfulness), complicité (togetherness), and disponsibilité (openness). I was so intrigued by these ideas, and the different exercises that my son learned in order to cultivate these skills within ensemble acting, that I decided to try a Lecoq approach with my own musical ensemble, Baroklyn.”
Maya Beiser – Salt | August 1, 2025 (Islandia Music Records)
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“Beiser has built a career around challenging traditional notions of how her instrument is played and thought about in a sometimes stiflingly rigid classical music industry that has traditionally imposed higher barriers on women.” – Leila Fadel, NPR Morning Edition
“Salt is an emotionally charged meditation on memory, mourning and mythic womanhood.” – Thomas May, The Strad
“an extraordinary album that reinforces [Maya] Beiser’s status as one of the most innovative—and intriguing—string players on the contemporary music scene.” – Greg Cahill, Strings
Cellist and producer Maya Beiser, hailed as a “force of nature” by The Boston Globe, released her newest solo album, Salt, on her Islandia Music Records label. This conceptually rich collection centers around the biblical figure of Lot's Wife, exploring themes of memory, witness, and the cost of remembering. On her new album, Maya gives voice to this nameless biblical figure who, for her, became “a symbol of all the women who have been punished for remembering, for feeling too much, for refusing to move on. I imagined her not as a cautionary tale, but as a witness. A woman who couldn’t unsee what she had loved. A woman who dared to turn around.”
The album features Missy Mazzoli's Salt, a powerful mini-opera for alto voice, amplified cello and electronics, featuring text by celebrated screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson and vocals by the extraordinary performer Helga Davis; Bieser’s arrangements of Gluck’s Melody from Orfeo ed Euridice, Tavener's Lament to Phaedra and Monteverdi's Lamento d'Arianna; Salt Air, Salt Earth by Clarice Jensen; and Bieser’s reimagining of Meredith Monk's Hocket; her reconstruction of Shedemati, a song from Beiser’s childhood in Israel, performed with the compelling vocal artist Odeya Nini; and Purcell's When I Am Laid in Earth, Purcell's When I Am Laid in Earth.
Tamar Sagiv – Shades of Mourning | August 8, 2025 (Sono Luminus)
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The Best New Albums Out August 8, 2025 – NPR Music, All Songs Considered
“Stylistically, [Tamar Sagiv’s] solo music is melodic and oddly timeless, and indeed placeless, somehow evoking both Bach and Dave Holland.” – Roger Thomas, BBC Music Magazine
“An impressive debut that fuses performance talents and composition in an unusual and fresh way.” – James Manheim, All Music
“Shades of Mourning showcases [Tamar Sagiv’s] virtuosic command of the cello, and she uses that technique to amplify the emotional expression of the material.” – Ron Schepper, Textura
New York City-based cellist and composer Tamar Sagiv releases her new album, Shades of Mourning, on the GRAMMY-winning label Sono Luminus. The album features nine original compositions by Sagiv that explore the multifaceted nature of grief and mourning through deeply personal musical landscapes. Violinist Leerone Hakami and violist Ella Bukszpan collaborate with Sagiv on four of the tracks.
Described by New York Weekly as "an innovative cellist [whose] versatility sets her apart from her peers," Sagiv was drawn to music's unique ability to convey the nuance of complex emotions and lived experiences. Each work on the album illuminates different aspects of the grieving process, from profound loss to unexpected moments of renewal.
Shades of Mourning began in the most intimate of circumstances. "This album began, unknowingly, at my grandmother's deathbed," Sagiv writes in her liner notes. "I didn't realize then that the piece I wrote while she was taking her last breaths would grow into an album, nor did I yet know I was a composer." That first piece became the album's opening track – a passacaglia that Sagiv describes as "a farewell to a woman who shaped my life in ways I'm still uncovering."
Tina Davidson – Let Your Heart Be Broken (Audiobook) | August 12, 2025 (Boyle & Dalton)
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“The real music here is in the words, which cascade across these pages with a gentle, precise rhythm reflected in Davidson’s luminous musical scores. Let Your Heart Be Broken is not the story of a solitary artist obsessed with a craft but rather of the life that informs the art: a humanistic, worldly spirit, creating beauty amid an often-maddening, yet ever-hopeful, world.” – Peter Burwasser, Broad Street Review
Composer and author Tina Davidson’s memoir, Let Your Heart Be Broken, is now available in audiobook format on all major platforms via publisher Boyle & Dalton. The audiobook, read by Davidson herself, features her music woven throughout, interspersed in sections where she discusses the compositions’ creation. This rare look inside a composer’s creative process juxtaposes recordings of Davidson’s music, memories, journal entries, and insights into the life of an artist and mother at work. Let Your Heart Be Broken was published in hardback and paperback in 2023.
“Part of my commitment as a composer is to bring others into my musical world, both through the music itself and by writing about my creative process,” says Tina Davidson. “By weaving my compositions into the chapters of this audiobook containing my journals, I'm creating a bridge between my inner creative practice and the finished work, opening the door for listeners to understand and connect more deeply.”
Davidson, a highly regarded American composer, creates music that stands out for its emotional depth and lyrical dignity. Lauded for her authentic voice, The New York Times has praised her “vivid ear for harmony and colors.”
Telegraph Quartet – 20th Century Vantage Points: Edge of the Storm | August 22, 2025 (Azica Records)
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“Nimble and cohesive, the Telegraph Quartet plays these works with utter conviction, revealing music that, haunted by destruction, insists on forward motion.” – Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, The New York Times
“Edge of the Storm builds on the Telegraph’s reputation for intellectually searching and emotionally charged interpretations. Now quartet-in-residence with the University of Michigan, the ensemble – violinists Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violist Pei-Ling Lin, and cellist Jeremiah Shaw – approaches this music not simply as a historical document, but as a living challenge to engage with the past.” – Thomas May, The Strad
“An impressive series of performances that are not for the faint-of-heart.” – Gary Lemco, The Arts Fuse
The Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) releases its new album, Edge of the Storm, on Azica Records. Edge of the Storm follows the Telegraph Quartet's acclaimed 2023 album Divergent Paths as the second volume in its 20th-Century Vantage Points series. Where the first volume featuring the quartets of Ravel and Schoenberg explored the century's opening decade of unbridled creativity, this new installment examines the turbulent years of war and its aftermath from 1941-1951 through string quartets by Grażyna Bacewicz, Benjamin Britten, and Mieczysław Weinberg.
On Edge of the Storm, the Telegraph delves into the brief but historically significant ten-year period of 1941-51. As Kai Christiansen writes in the liner notes, “Each composer featured on the album lived a unique wartime life that unmistakably influenced their equally unique quartet masterworks of the period.” Together, these quartets form a powerful triptych of wartime experience: Britten's exile and displacement, Weinberg's direct confrontation with genocide and loss, and Bacewicz's emergence from underground resistance into post-war renewal. Each composer's unique response to this defining historical moment creates a cohesive artistic statement about creativity's persistence through one of humanity's darkest periods.
Ember – Birds of Paradise | September 12, 2025 (Azica Records)
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“Written in 1901, [Henriette Renié's] Trio's four movements draw on the style of late 19th century French Romanticism with elements of the modernist ideas that were also developing, conveyed here in an interpretation that is evocative but never mannered.” – Roger Thomas, BBC Music Magazine
“It would be reductionist to say that this is an album showcasing women’s voices. It is so much more than that. Birds of Paradise is a wonderfully evocative and engaging 48 minutes of music performed exquisitely.” – Craig Byrd, Cultural Attaché
“The principal composition on the album is a trio in B-flat major composed by Henriette Renié…The instrumentation allows for a piano in place of a harp, but the plucked-string sonorities of the harp make for an engaging contrast with the two bowed instruments.” – Stephen Smoliar, The Rehearsal Studio
Ember (harpist, Emily Levin, violinist Julia Choi, and cellist Christine Lamprea) is an ensemble of modern trailblazers championing new works by living composers and forging paths of connection and community through intimate, personalized concert experiences. The trio’s debut album – Birds of Paradise, released on Azica Records – showcases three compelling works: French harpist and composer Henriette Renié's groundbreaking Trio in B-flat Major (1901), the first major composition written for harp, violin, and cello; the world premiere recording of Angélica Negrón’s Ave del paraíso (2023); and the first recording of Reena Esmail’s Saans (2017) in this new arrangement for harp, violin, and cello created for Ember.“
Birds of Paradise directly confronts the historical stereotyping of the harp as a "feminine" domestic instrument. As Emily Levin explains in the album notes, while the harp was once "considered suitable for the domestic sphere,” its transition to the concert hall was largely championed by male performers playing works by male composers, often overlooking the revolutionary contributions of women performers and composers.
Arlene Sierra – Birds and Insects Vol. 4 (Featuring the World Premiere Recording of Birds and Insects: Book 3 by Sarah Cahill) | September 5, 2025 (Bridge Records)
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"This is music that you need to hear for yourself... Arlene Sierra’s gift is unquestionably brilliant." – Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International
“This is rigorously modern music that is directly appealing, something that is no small accomplishment.” – James Manheim, AllMusic
"Whether you are familiar with the sounds of the titmouse or the black and white warbler or tawny owls, Sierra’s approach to giving them a musical work is enjoyable and provocative.” – Craig Byrd, Cultural Attaché
Arlene Sierra’s Birds and Insects Vol. 4 is out now on Bridge Records. This is the fourth volume of Sierra’s work recorded as part of Bridge Records’ Portrait Series. The album features pianist Sarah Cahill’s world premiere recording of Birds and Insects: Book 3, as well as the world premiere recordings of Birds and Insects Books 1 and 2, recorded by pianist Steven Beck. Sierra composed Birds and Insects: Book 3 for Cahill in 2022, commissioned by London’s Barbican Centre as part of Cahill’s The Future is Female project.
Sierra's Birds and Insects comprises three books of 5 movements each, composed across a twenty-year period. Like much of her work, it centers on the natural world, addressing the subjects of landscape, evolutionary biology, and the sounds, processes and behavior of birds and insects. Sierra writes, “Each piece features distinct characteristics to fit its title: spelling the name in pitches, employing a transcription of an animal’s song from nature, recalling its physical movement in various ways, or developing ideas drawn from an animal’s cultural symbolism.”
Cahill says: “It was an honor to work with Arlene Sierra on these fascinating pieces which she wrote for my project The Future is Female at the Barbican in 2022, and to make the first recording of them. Arlene was inspired by the female Lovely Fairywren and Canyon Wren who sing. She explains that birdsong was always considered the exclusive domain of male birds because they were only studied by male ornithologists, but that recently female ornithologists have proven that female birds sing as well.”
Christopher Stark – Fire Ecologies | September 19, 2025 (New Focus Recordings)
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The Best New Albums Out September 19, 2025 – NPR Music, All Songs Considered
“The blend of music and recordings begins its life in the haunting opening track. The subsequent pieces reflect tones that are whimsical, ominous and conclude with a sense of renewal.” – Craig Byrd, Cultural Attaché
“You can be dazzled in the comfort of your home, as Unheard-of//Ensemble has released a stunning recording of [Christopher] Stark’s piece.” – Jeremy Shatan, anEarful
Fire Ecologies is the new album from Christopher Stark – Rome Prize-winning composer, curator, and Associate Professor of Composition at Washington University in St. Louis. This new recording is released on New Focus Recordings and performed by New York based chamber group Unheard-of Ensemble – Ford Fourqurean (clarinet), Matheus Souza (violin), Iva Casian-Lakoš (cello), Daniel Anastasio (piano). The work was premiered on September 18, 2021 by Unheard-of Ensemble at the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, NY.
In the nearly four years since its premiere, Fire Ecologies has been performed several times throughout the United States with two of its most noteworthy performances taking place at two New York City based EPA Superfund sites. These locations add to the statement of the work itself, aiming to move the conversation about climate change beyond the walls of the concert hall and into nature, striving to bring more attention to the places that need more urgent preservation efforts.
Fire Ecologies incorporates field recordings of the 2020 California wildfires and sounds from Stark’s travels around the U.S. “Nature has always been a central theme in my work because I grew up in western Montana in a very small town at the base of the Rocky Mountains and on the southern shore of a large glacial lake,” Stark writes in an article for Washington University in St. Louis. “But in recent years the inspiration I take from nature has become more complicated as climate change has begun to haunt our planet.”
Made up of six “scenes,” Fire Ecologies evokes many contrasting moods through each one.
“They take their titles from pre-existing, nature-inspired music in an attempt to recontextualize these old pieces through the contemporary lens of global warming,” writes Stark. “For example, the second scene is called Jeux d’eau ( Water Games) after Maurice Ravel, and the fifth scene is called “Dypt inne i barskogen” (“Deep in the Forest”) after Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt.”
Carolyn Surrick & Ensemble Galilei – There I Long to Be | September 26, 2025 (Sono Luminus)
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The Best New Albums Out September 26, 2025 – NPR Music, All Songs Considered
“[Ensemble Galilei’s] sound defies genre classification.” – Frank Housh, Media Room
Ensemble Galilei is a small ensemble specializing in a wide range of music for their particular instrumentation, and includes Isaac Alderson (uilleann pipes, Irish flute, whistles, tenor saxophone), Jesse Langen (guitar), Kathryn Montoya (recorders, whistle, shawm), Jackie Moran (banjo, bodhrán, egg shaker; and founder Carolyn Surrick (viola da gamba). The group performs Renaissance and Baroque, Ancient and recent Celtic (including Scots, Welsh, Cornish, Breton, and Galician music), and Irish music, including some works especially written for them. The ensemble is named after Vincenzo Galilei (ca. 1520-1592), a pioneer in the Greek-inspired movement that created “opera in musica.” He is credited as both simplifying and bringing passion back into music, and was also a leading theoretician of his time. (His son, Galileo Galilei, was the great astronomer.)
Featuring 47 tunes across 34 tracks on two discs, There I Long to Be, the new album from esteemed folk collective Ensemble Gllilei, contains an abundance of jigs, reels, traditional tunes, and early music, as well as works by members of the Ensemble. In addition to the five regular Ensemble members, this recording also features Hanneke Cassel (fiddle, and Ensemble Galilei emeritus member), Tim Langen (fiddle), Ronn McFarlane (lute), and James Oxley (tenor).
Recorded over the course of two years, the music on There I Long to Be encompasses a wide range of musical styles, cultures, and time periods – a combination of the musicians’ individual interests and the group’s focus. What unites it is an artistic vision that is inspired and undeterred, and unique to Ensemble Galilei.
Clarice Jensen – In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness | October 17, 2025 (FatCat/130701 Records)
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“With this album, [Clarice] Jensen reminds us how past and present can combine in potent, emotionally charged ways — how Bach's old school traditions and our new age of electronics can make arresting bedfellows.” – Tom Huizenga, NPR Music
“There is music with the power to transport you instantly into another world—and Clarice Jensen's new album, In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness, is most certainly among it. Even the title (inspired by a line from Rilke) feels like a promise: something emerging from the darkness, radiant, dressed in festive attire. And that is precisely how it's supposed to be, when you allow yourself to be drawn into Jensen's soundscapes.” – Sounds Vegan
“Even the most accessible work in the evolving oeuvre of cellist and composer Clarice Jensen is experimental, because it’s about venturing somewhere new. In holiday clothing out of the great darkness moves her sound forward through improvisation, as she uses cello, pedals, and electronics to create loops and layers. The result is a wealth of tonal variety[.]” – Marc Masters, Bandcamp
Cellist and composer Clarice Jensen releases her fourth solo album, In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness, via FatCat Records’ 130701 imprint. The new album showcases Jensen’s distinctive compositional approach, in which she improvises and layers her cello through shifting loops and a chain of electronic effects, exploring a series of rich, drone-based sound fields. Pulsing, visceral and full of color, her work is deeply immersive, marked by a wonderful sense of restraint and an almost hallucinatory clarity. Jensen recorded In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness as part of the Visiting Artist Programme at Studio Richter Mahr, the creative space co-founded by Yulia Mahr and Max Richter in Oxfordshire, England.
With In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness, Jensen sets new parameters – placing the acoustic sound of the cello at the fore and affecting the sound only through a few effects (octave displacement, delay, tremolo and looping). Jensen considers the solo cello works of J.S. Bach as a central backdrop to this new album. Bach’s Solo Cello Suites display a rich range of voices created by one instrument. Having found ways to expand the sound and voice of the instrument through electronics, Jensen found it fitting to return to Bach's works – music she has played for many years – as a way to touch back in with the tradition of the instrument. She notes, “It felt necessary to return to the rich acoustic sound of the cello that I've loved and produced for nearly my entire life, and to return to an expression of emotion that's multi-dimensional and sincere.”
Ariel Quartet – Complete Beethoven String Quartets Vol. 2 | November 7, 2025 (Orchid Records)
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“One of the finest musical ensembles performing today, noted for its sophisticated, passionate sound.” – Frank Housh, Media Room
The Ariel Quartet (Alexandra Kazovsky, violin; Gershon Gerchikov, violin; Jan Grüning, viola; and Amit Even-Tov, cello) – distinguished by its virtuosity, probing musical insight, and impassioned performances – will release volume two of their Complete Beethoven String Quartets trilogy on November 7, 2025 via Orchid Classics, with volume three arriving in June 2026 and a special box set release in March 2027.
Volume two of the cycle, recorded across three CDs, includes Beethoven’s Razumovsky Quartets – String Quartet No. 7 in F major, Op. 59 No. 1; String Quartet No. 9 in C major, Op. 59 No. 3; and String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59 No. 2 – as well as his String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 74; and String Quartet No.11 in F minor, Op. 95, “Quartetto serioso.”
The Quartet recounts an early experience with Beethoven’s Op. 59, the Razumovsky Quartets, which left a long-lasting impression.
They write, “A memorable milestone in our personal journey with Beethoven was a concert at Frankfurt’s Kaisersaal during the 1999-2000 season, where we performed all three Razumovsky Quartets in a single evening. At sixteen, we approached the challenge with youthful excitement, and through countless hours in rehearsal we began to understand the depth and demands of this music – gradually developing not only the stamina, but the artistic maturity required to bring over two hours of this intricate music to life. Youthful enthusiasm (let’s be honest: fearlessness) alone allowed us to commit to the repertoire for this important concert without hesitation – and luckily, all went well. In hindsight, preparing this music for increasingly demanding opportunities played a crucial role in forging a confident and lasting relationship with this extraordinary canon.”